Former railways minister Ishaq Khan Khakwani is appealing for help from the international community to ensure a fair trial for Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi politician convicted by its controversial International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) for war crimes during the 1971 war.
The ICT, set up by the Awami League-led government in 2009 to prosecute alleged war crimes committed in the 1971 war, sentenced Chowdhury, a Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)’s leader, to death on October 1, 2013.
During his trial, Chowdhury had listed eight defence witnesses, including five from Pakistan. These included former caretaker prime minister Muhammadmian Soomro, Ishaq Khan Khakwani, Muneeb Arjumand Khan, Amber Haroon Saigol and Riyaz Ahmad.
However, when these witnesses sent their sworn affidavits, the tribunal deemed all of them inadmissible, except for that of Soomro’s. Likewise, Bangladesh authorities refused entry to five Pakistanis who wanted to appear as defence witnesses for Chowdhury.
Khakwani has approached dean of diplomatic corps in Islamabad, H E Rudolfo Saravia, to seek help from foreign missions in Islamabad for ensuring fair trial of the accused.
In his letter, Khakwani has requested International War Crime Tribunal in Islamabad to take evidence and affidavits of the Pakistani witnesses on record and to make them defense witnesses.
Khakwani has stated that in their second attempt to send their affidavits from Pakistan, the witnesses got them re-attested from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and routed them through the High Commission of Bangladesh Islamabad.
He said they also recorded affidavits in person on a video and sent them to the lawyer defending Chowdhury so that those could be presented before the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.
“[But] the most disheartening news is that when our affidavits on video were received in Bangladesh, the Bangladesh government became aware of their presentation and ordered their immigration at all ports of entry.
“This act of the Bangladesh government is appalling and flagrant abuse of human rights. Fair trial is everyone’s right. Accepting or rejecting the evidence is the sole right of the trial/appellant courts. This is total miscarriage of justice,” said the letter.
Amnesty’s concerns
Rights group Amnesty International (AI) has also raised questions over the trial and appeal process of Chowdhury and said ‘serious flaws’ occurred in the trial and appeal processes, adding that the trial failed to meet international standards for fair trial.
In a statement, the rights group said serious crimes were also committed by the pro-independence forces, but no one has been investigated or brought to justice for them.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 8th, 2015.
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